The Sharing Solution

Yesterday, I moderated a panel discussion and had many great conversations at the Festival for Grassroots Economies, where brilliant ideas seemed to be generated, on average, every 2 seconds. My mind is still spinning from it all, but I thought I'd stop and try to capture at least a tidbit.

A memorable moment was when attorney Jenny Kassan boldly suggested that we need a local stock exchange to serve as a source of finance for small local businesses and to keep our investments in the community (as opposed to putting our savings into mutual funds and financing who-knows-what kind of companies). It's really a genius idea - it could create a simple way for each of us to share in owning and nurturing the businesses that serve us. We would choose to finance the businesses we feel could successfully enhance the character of our neighborhoods, provide a needed local service or product, create local jobs, and be accountable to the community. Most folks trading on the New York Stock Exchange don't take any of this into consideration.

Jenny Kassan cited Michael Shuman, author of The Small-Mart Revolution. Shuman recently blogged about the concept of local stock exchanges. A major reason we don't have local stock exchanges now, Shuman points out, is that securities laws have made it prohibitively expensive for small businesses to make a public offering. Shuman writes:

"The regulations prohibit the average American from investing in any small business, unless the firm is willing to spend $50,000 to $100,000 on lawyers to prepare private placement memorandum or public offering--thick documents with microscopic, ALL CAPS PRINT that no human being has ever been observed actually reading."

But Shuman suggests some simple changes to the securities laws, that could make it a lot easier for small businesses to seek investors. For example, he suggests that we could exempt from securities regulation any small businesses that issues $250,000 or less in total stock, offers the stock only to people living in the state, and allow each investor to purchase no more than $100 worth of stock.

In the same way that many of us have made micro-loans through organizations such as Kiva, we could make investments of a comparable size in businesses locally. We'll see the returns in many ways - not only in the growth of our investment money, but in the growth of flourishing businesses all around us.

A friend of mine who is a landscaper recently told me about his plans to spend an afternoon at a local sewing center, patching up his denim work pants and mending various articles of clothing. His line of work subjects his clothes to a lot of wear and tear, but without his own sewing machine, he has a hard time giving them the durable repairs they need. He was on his way to Waterside Workshops, a nonprofit in Berkeley, CA, that has a Sewing Program open to the public. During their drop-in hours, anyone can come and use an array of sewing machines or other equipment, get sewing advice, and chat with others about sewing for $5 per hour.

It would be wonderful for every community to have a public sewing workshop. It would encourage people to repair damaged clothing rather than throw it away. It would also help us all develop our skills, give us a space to socialize with others, and save many resources -- both personally and for the planet.

Along the same lines, it would also be great if every community had:

• A public woodworking shop
• A welding center where anyone can go to repair broken metal items
• A bike repair station where we can use specialized tools to repair our own bikes, like the Missing Link in Berkeley, where I once replaced my brakes
• A place where we can go learn about and change our own car oil, transmission fluid, and so on
• A tool lending library
• Large commercial-scale kitchens that people could use for the day if they are helping to cater a one-time event or do a fundraising bake sale. Shared kitchens, such as Kitchen Chicago are also great for small-scale food enterprises.

There are probably plenty of other great ideas along these same lines. If you have any ideas or would like to tell us about a cool community program of this sort, please email us at sharing (at) janelleorsi (dot) com. Thanks!

It's no fun to focus on bad news, so I won't for more than just a second. One piece of news literally drove home for me the importance of building local economies. I used to live near and work in Wilmington, OH, where the shipping company DHL has recently proceeded with the layoff of over 7,000 employees. The town itself barely has 12,000 people, which makes the number 7,000 sound unfathomable. It's scary that small towns all over the U.S. are so dependent on an economic system that's way bigger than us, and that's seemingly out of our control. We've all heard the encouragement to "buy local," "eat local," become "locavores," and so on. But creating vital local economies is not just a nice-sounding idea, it's crucial to preventing devastation of our communities, and current events are making action feel increasingly urgent.

But now for some positive thoughts -- here are just a few of the ways that sharing can help strengthen our local economies:

• Carsharing and ridesharing encourage people to reduce driving and shop locally.
• Sharing facilitates a barter economy, especially when shared services and goods become a type of currency, exchangeable for other shared services and goods.
  
• Sharing ownership and purchase of goods reduces costs and makes it possible to purchase quality goods from local producers and artisans.
• Creation of consumer-owned or employee-owned businesses provides local economic opportunity.
• Sharing can help small business owners -- allowing entrepreneurs to share office or retail space, equipment, trucks, and so on.
• Sharing the purchase of services makes it more affordable to hire house cleaners, gardeners, home care workers, child care workers, and so on, thereby providing work to people locally.
  
• Community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs create a direct link between consumers and local farmers, and provide security for the farms that grow our food.

For more resources and information about creating sustainable local economies, visit the website for BALLE -- the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. Their vision is to create "living economies" which "ensure that economic power resides locally to the greatest extent possible, sustaining vibrant, livable communities and healthy ecosystems in the process." There, I'm ending on a positive note.

The benefits of sharing are many, and I'm always discovering new ones. Sharing can benefit us personally and financially, and it can make the world a much better place. Here is a listing of some of the benefits:

Social and Personal Benefits. These are some of the ways that your life, and society as a whole, will be better because of sharing. For example, sharing can help everyone:

• get to know our neighbors and make neighborhoods safer
• make friends
• find resources and referrals more easily
• find new ways to relate to friends, relatives, coworkers, and neighbors
• lighten our load of responsibilities
• create more free time
• meet the needs of seniors and people with disabilities
• increase resources and opportunities for low-income households
• support small businesses and buy locally
• access better nutrition, and
• access higher-quality goods.

Environmental Benefits. Sharing is kind to the planet, because it:

• uses space, energy, and resources more efficiently
• reduces consumption
• reduces waste
• reduces energy use
• helps us invest in green products, alternative energy, and durable goods
• shrinks your carbon footprint
• sets a green example for others, and
• helps take cars off the road.

Financial Benefits. The financial benefits of sharing really add up. Through sharing, you can:

• spread the cost of owning high-quality and durable goods
• reduce the cost of caring for a child or other family member
• reduce the cost of food, fuel, and supplies
• accomplish home repairs without paying for labor
• spread the risk of loss, damage, and depreciation
• share homeownership and build equity
• save money through collective buying, and
• get access to luxury items you couldn't afford alone.

There are ways to incorporate sharing into almost every realm of life. Here's a sampling of ways to share:

CAR:

• Find a friend or a neighbor who would like to share a car and make a schedule to take turns.
• Join an established car-sharing program, such as City CarShare or ZipCar.

RIDES:

• Set up or join a carpool to work or school.
• Find out if there are casual ridesharing programs in your community.
• Start a vanpool.

FOOD:

• Trade leftovers with a neighbor or share regular meals.
• Take part in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs.
• Start a community food garden in your neighborhood.
• Share fruit harvested from your trees.

HOME:

• Buy a home with a friend.
• Consider living in cohousing.
• Retrofit a large house to accommodate two households.
• Live cooperatively in a group house.
• Share a vacation home.

Continue reading "Sharing in Every Realm of Life" »